Latest Press

Why She’s Worth Watching: In a genre often pinned to formulaic sounds and themes, Samantha Crain is re-stitching the seams of Americana to fit her singular artistic vision. The 21-year-old songwriter—recently signed to tasteful North Carolina label Ramseur, which also houses The Avett Brothers and fellow Best of What’s Next-ers Everybodyfields—paints mystical, poetic slipstreams of words onto a canvas of haunting echo-chamber lap steel, earthy acoustic guitars, and loose-change tambourine, delivering her graceful songs with a gorgeous, quivering voice.

For Fans Of: Joanna Newsom, Andrew Bird, Mary Gauthier

Acceptance Speech: “Thank you! We can hardly conjugate verbs right now. We want to thank all the people at Paste who looked deep within their Magic 8 Balls before giving us this honor and—to all the other bands out there—we just want you to know how super-pumped your jealousy makes us feel right now! Thank you!”